<p>SO I hear an undergrad in Biomed is preety much useless unless you go to a school like John Hopkins. So which of these 3 engineer majors should I get an undergrad for? Which would be the best fit for a graduate in biomedical later on?</p>
<p>Chemical eng
Electric eng
Mechanical eng</p>
<p>I am not interested in CS eng.</p>
<p>relating to what a biomedical engineer does…i would say mechanical</p>
<p>The best fit is the one you are the most interested in. What do you want to do with BME?</p>
<p>I am not sure what I want to do with biomed, I just find it very interesting. I am now just thinking of doing a undergrad in chemical engineering and then going to graduate school for biomedical.</p>
<p>
Would Rice fit into that category? I’m pretty conflicted at the moment, I like biomedical a lot and I want to get into that eventually but from what I read it sounds like I would really be shooting myself in the foot by majoring in BME for undergrad rather than some other engineering field.</p>
<p>I would say that ChemE is probably the least useful of the three majors. EE and ME are better choices.</p>
<p>If you plan on going to graduate school and are interested in BME then major in BME… If you plan on only getting and undergraduate degree ME, EE, and ChemE will all be fine(as would BME, but expect slightly lesser pay and job opportunities with just an undergraduate degree) and there are people in those fields that do BME work. However, the undergraduate curriculum can differ significantly between those disciplines depending on your school and if it is BME that you find most interesting I would stick with that, especially if you plan on going to grad school for BME. In certain BME graduate programs majoring in something other than BME as an undergrad may actually put you behind and require you to take additional courses.</p>
<p>As a response to PurdueEE, ChemE is still useful. There are many Chemical Engineers who work in BME, as there are many MEs, and EEs doing the same.</p>
<p>One main problem with BME as an undergrad major is that it is such a broad, interdisciplinary field. You’ll be dabbling in too much without have enough depth in one particular area. While you may know a little bit about everything, when it comes to actual implementation, you may overlook problems that a team of specialized engineers would have caught.</p>
<p>And from my understanding of ChemE, I don’t think ChemE is as useful as MechE or EE. From Wikipedia, “Chemical engineering largely involves the design and maintenance of chemical processes for large-scale manufacture.” I think what you’re looking for is Materials Science.</p>
<p>I agree that many BME programs are less specialized than ME, EE, or ChemE but this varies, and is irrelevant to those wishes to enter graduate school for BME. Some BME programs, particularly the larger ones, offer the ability to specialize within BME and therefore gain expertise in a certain field which somewhat negates your argument for those attending these schools.</p>
<p>Chemical engineers do MUCH more than design simply chemical processes for manufacture… </p>
<p>From Georgia Tech’s department of Chemical Engineering:
"Chemical engineers use their knowledge to manipulate molecular properties of matter and they integrate product and process design, process control, and optimization. Economics and business principles also play an important role in chemical engineering, for it is the chemical engineer who develops economical and environmentally safe applications of discoveries made in the laboratory.</p>
<p>Chemical engineers play a key role in a multitude of industries, including microelectronics, oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, food, textiles, and personal products. Chemical engineers have to be viewed as having provided the intellectual capital that built today’s global energy and chemical enterprises. Some of the products they have generated are ubiquitous throughout modern society: recording media, communications hardware, detergents, medical devices, glasses, paper, fibers, fertilizers, prescription and over-the-counter medicines, paints, adhesives, food additives, and countless other inventions that are often taken for granted."</p>
<p>Research Areas for ChemE include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Biomedical Engineering</li>
<li>Biotechnology, Bioinformatics & Bioprocessing</li>
<li>Catalysis, Reaction Kinetics & Reaction Engineering</li>
<li>Complex Fluids & Multiphase Flow</li>
<li>Energy Transformation & Utilization</li>
<li>Environmental Science & Sustainable Development</li>
<li>Microelectronics, Microfluidics & MEMS</li>
<li>Nanotechnology</li>
<li>Polymers & Materials Science</li>
<li>Process Systems Engineering</li>
<li>Pulp & Paper</li>
<li>Separations</li>
<li>Thermodynamics & Intermolecular Interactions</li>
</ul>
<p>The field of ChemE has increasing enveloped biology and biological processes and continues to do so. </p>
<p>EE and ME are also very relevant and useful fields in BME, but so is ChemE.</p>
<p>I start college this august, so I am sure biomedical job should increase by the time i get an undergrad. SO now I am thinking of just sticking with biomed, and then pursue graduate school later on.</p>